I attended my first Cullman lunch today and spent half the time wishing that I had attended more of them throughout the year. Without doing any research, I had always assumed these were simply informal lunches at the Blackwell where everyone crowded around the special guests and didn’t get much out of it. Turns out, I was completely wrong. It ended up being more of a lecture in a classroom setting, but I was very impressed with both Mr. Stovsky and the lunch.

Not surprising coming from a partner, his advice was to “work hard, work hard, and… work hard.” He preached being the first to the office and last to leave the office to show that you are dedicated to your work and can be relied upon. He also spent a great deal of his presentation on how to attract clients and then maintain those clients. His key was to be responsive, reliable, and build deep relationships with clients that can weather a storm.

In the end, he summarized his presentation by asking a simple question—if you were to form a two person partnership would you choose you to be the other partner?